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**U.S. Department of Justice**        Office of Community Oriented Policing Services            145 N Street, N.E.       Washington, DC 20530      www.cops.usdoj.gov×         Menu         - Home
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**Sheriffs Working in Collaborationwith Communities and Peers**
 May 2018 | Volume 11 | Issue 5

*Scott Rose is the sheriff  of Dodge County, Minnesota. Dodge County is part of the Rochester Metropolitan  Area, and many county residents work at Rochester’s Mayo Clinic, a destination  medical center.*

For us, community policing encompasses a mindset, in how we  engage and interact with the public, and also a process for implementing policies,  programs, and procedures to encourage community involvement and building  relationships with the public we serve. In Dodge County (MN), the goal is to  encourage buy-in from the community towards their own public safety—law  enforcement and the community work together in partnership.

**Engagement with communities**

We have a number of departments in our agency that work with  communities in different ways. For example, we contract with several cities  within the county to provide law enforcement services, and the same deputies  are assigned to city patrols to build trust with the communities over time. The  deputies work there every night and that frequency helps them develop  relationships with the citizens and businesses; the deputies get out of their  squad cars to talk with residents and business owners. They attend council  meetings and city meetings to engage the local residents. Feedback from the  public is positive, and residents will request specific deputies respond for  help with issues because of the relationships they have made and the rapport  that has developed.

One of our most important pieces of community policing  process is the school resource officer (SRO) program. Officers are assigned in  all three school districts and work with students from kindergarten through  high school. Especially with elementary and middle school, where kids are  impressionable, it is so important for our officers to build rapport—build  trust and relationships with the students. And not only with the students, but  officers build relationships with parents and faculty over time. The SROs have people  ask for them by name throughout their career, both when the students are in  school and into adulthood, because of the relationships and rapport built early  on with the parents and students. During summer breaks, the SROs do community  outreach work over to improve rapport with the families. From a community  standpoint, that is one of the most important positions in our office.

 Another way we engage the public is through community  outreach and training. Our deputies are at business expos, fairs, and city  festivals with booths to talk about the services we provide. We conduct several  TZD (Toward Zero Deaths) programs across the county, with increased patrol for  distracted driving, and deputies present mock crash programs for all three high  schools during prom and homecoming season. We also do National Night Out [an  annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships]  and conduct DARE for all the fifth grade students in the county.

After the church shooting in Texas last summer, we had  churches reach out to us for help. We developed a training program for churches  and about 35 attended the training. Deputies, emergency management, and I are  now following up with site surveys to help them work with their safety  programs, evaluate their property and services, and review their policies and  procedures for working with the public and the congregation.

Dodge County has a very active drug court program for  high-risk offenders as a response to the chemical dependency problems that are  certainly not unique to our area. Sheriff’s office members are on the drug  court committee staff that reviews prospective candidates and reviews their progress  as participants. We also do ‘Knock and Chat,’ or we do house checks several  times a week with drug court participants to develop a rapport and make sure  they are in compliance with drug court rules. We help with intensive  supervision of drug court clients during the 18-month program. We work well  with all our public safety partners to support the community. Because we  outreach and engage with the community to build rapport, when something big is  going on or residents see something of concern, they know who to contact and  trust our deputies.

**Collaboration with peers**

One of the best practices I can recommend to other agencies  is networking; we network with the other sheriff’s offices across the state. Minnesota  has 87 counties and all the sheriffs are actively involved in the Minnesota  Sheriffs Association (MSA), the state chapter of the National Sheriff’s  Association. The MSA organizes training throughout the year; holds a winter and  a summer conference; provides legal assistance and advice on administration and  case law—and I rely on them for feedback. In addition to the state association,  we also have regional associations. I am in the regional group 6 that  represents southeast Minnesota, and we meet once a month to discuss various  topics like policies and procedures, programming, social media, and public data  requests.

The MSA also acts as a liaison with the state. In Minnesota,  the position of sheriff is nonpartisan—our belief here is that politics and law  enforcement shouldn’t go together. Law enforcement makes decisions based on  what is best for the community.

**Social media**

Our county is very active on social media to outreach about  our initiatives, programs, and successes. We are very proactive from a law  enforcement standpoint, and social media is one way we engage with the public.  We expect a 20 percent population increase by 2030 as a result of new  employment opportunities in the Rochester metropolitan area and we use social  media to encourage positive growth—we demonstrate that this is a great place to  live and raise families. Conversely, social media also works to deter negative  growth—to keep away people who may be interested in coming here for nefarious  reasons.

My recommendation to law enforcement executives and future  leaders is to get involved in state associations. In addition to networking,  these association are where you get new ideas and get resources to help engage  with your community. Daily workload can be overwhelming, but engagement with  peers and community members helps to make your agency better.

Sheriff  Scott RoseDodge County  Sheriff Department

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The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office. 

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